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Analysis & opinionDecember 2 2003

Spain’s latter-day dynamos go from strength to strength

The dynamic Spain of today is a far cry from the backward country ofthe Franco era more than 25 years ago. The economic and socialtransformation has been remarkable and this month The Banker talks tosome of the key architects of the change. Rodrigo Rato, Spain’s financeminister, explains the successes and the challenges ahead whileFrancisco González, president of BBVA, and Javier Valls, chairman ofBanco Popular, give the banker’s perspective. And Karina Robinsoncontinues our Spanish foray, with a broad-ranging interview with JaimeCaruana, governor of the Bank of Spain and chairman of the BaselCommittee.
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Meanwhile, Liu Mingkang, the chairman of the new China Banking

Regulatory Commission, maps out the strategy for the new banking

supervisor; John Costas, chairman of UBS Investment Bank, explains the

bank’s success in the US; and John Kay questions whether financial

markets are efficient.

Also in this issue, we launch our Corporate Awards, which showcase

exceptional companies (excluding banks) across the world. The focus is

on financial soundness and growth potential, along with adherence to

technological development, sustainability and good corporate

governance. From more than 500 invitations, our panel has selected 29

companies from 29 different countries – the cream of the global crop.

In capital markets, Deutsche Bank is our Team of the Month for its role

in the $4.2bn ABB restructuring deal. We also look closely at the

growth of emerging market credit derivatives and the continued strength

of equity-linked issuance in recent capital raising. In global

securities services, we look at the economies to be gained by “pooling”

funds and in FX and Treasury we examine the phenomenal growth in the

euro commercial paper (ECP) market.

In Central and Eastern Europe, one of Russia’s oligarchs discovers the

cash cow that is retail banking, and we study the rapidly expanding

Russian real estate and residential property markets. We also consider

Russia’s manufacturing potential and its Top 50 banks. And in the

Middle East and Africa, our special supplement on Iran examines the

fundamental shift towards privatisation, especially in the financial

sector, and we present our Top 100 Africans bank listing.

In Asia, restructuring of the banking sector in Indonesia comes in for

some tough criticism and in China investment banks are set to make

profits from cleaning up ailing state bank balance sheets.

In retail, our special supplement focuses on the return to the branch

and the importance of branch renewal while we highlight the successful

strategy of Hungary’s OTP Bank.

Last but not least, in technology Capital One’s Gregor Bailar discusses the changing role of the chief information officer.

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